The 10 biggest Chicago sports business stories of 2015

For the first time in half a decade, the Chicago Cubs were more exciting on the field than off it. In a complete turnaround from an early season marred by bleacher construction delays and a bathroom shortage, the North Siders' 97-win regular season translated into a boost in ticket sales and an expected financial windfall for the franchise. Sponsorship experts say many of the ballpark assets the team is selling during its ongoing Wrigley Field renovation are worth 30 percent more than they were a year ago thanks to the Cubs' first National League Championship Series appearance in a dozen years. Five more long-term "Legacy Partner" sponsors signed on with the team this year in Sloan Valve, American Airlines, Nuveen Investments, Toyota and Advocate Health Care, bringing the team's crop of top-tier corporate partner companies to 10. Those companies enjoyed air time on new video boards that debuted this year at Wrigley, where construction crews worked throughout the year (and continue to work) on the team's new 30,000-square-foot home clubhouse and an office building adjacent to the park.

Meanwhile, the franchise's biggest win may have come in federal court. In September, Judge Virginia Kendall dismissed a lawsuit filed by the owners of the Lakeview Baseball Club and Skybox on Sheffield rooftop businesses across from the ballpark seeking to block the Cubs' plan to erect a video board in right field that blocked their views into the stadium. But the 20-year revenue-sharing contracts on which the rooftop businesses were founded were not as ironclad as rooftop owners had hoped, according to Kendall. Some rooftop owners chose a different path and sold their properties to the Ricketts family, which now owns six of the 16 rooftop buildings across from the Friendly Confines and is suing for the right to buy a seventh.

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2. Blackhawks reign again

Winning a third Stanley Cup title in six seasons introduced the “dynasty” word into the conversation for the Chicago Blackhawks, who retained their spot (which they also held last year) as the second-most followed Chicago franchise behind the Bears, according to Nielsen Scarborough data. The Hawks brand has been among the most powerful in sports for half a decade, with the team now riding a 349-game sellout streak that has endured an 80 percent average ticket price hike since 2009. Those higher prices—along with lucrative merchandise and memorabilia sales—also brought an end to Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz's long-standing claims that the team doesn't bring in enough money from gate revenue, TV broadcast rights and sponsorships to cover its payroll expenses. For the first time in the eight years since he took control of the team, Wirtz said the Hawks had met his financial goal. Now he's parlaying his team's success into yet another business venture: Building a $60 million, 125,000-square-foot practice facility with two ice rinks two blocks south of the United Center. The new facility, slated to open in 2018, is designed to capitalize on the boom in Chicago youth hockey participation generated by the Hawks' popularity.

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CSN Chicago

Patrick Kane declares his innocence amid allegations of rape at a September news conference.

3. Patrick Kane rape allegation

Patrick Kane seemed to hint at an ominous road ahead for both himself and the Blackhawks at a July 18 Stanley Cup rally when he warned tens of thousands of fans at Soldier Field: "I know you said I've been growing up, but watch out for me for the next week." Just more than two weeks later, he was accused of rape by a woman in his hometown of Hamburg, N.Y., abruptly ending the glow from the Cup title and the off-the-ice reputation he had rebuilt over the previous two years. EA Sports immediately took Kane off of the cover of its NHL '16 video game amid a criminal investigation by the Erie County (N.Y.) district attorney. The 27-year-old's first public comments on the matter came during a news conference kicking off Blackhawks training camp in South Bend, where he declared his innocence but uncomfortably declining to answer a flurry of questions about the situation. One absurd sideshow involving an evidence-tampering hoax later, no charges were ever filed against the Hawks star, who retained all of his endorsement deals. Now, Kane has dropped out of the marketing spotlight that illuminated him early this year with appearances in national TV ads for Gatorade and McDonald's. Perhaps it has motivated him on the ice: He notched a point in 26-straight games, a new record for an American-born NHL player.

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New video boards at Soldier Field.

4. A new Bears regime and big changes at Soldier Field

2015 began with fresh personnel for the Bears in general manager Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox, helping to restore a bit of fan confidence after the debacle of the 2014 season under Phil Emery and Marc Trestman. But dramatic change happened at Soldier Field, too, where the Chicago Park District installed twin 5,160-square-foot video boards that have transformed the fan experience during Bears games. On-field struggles have done little to harm the Bears' appeal to corporate partners, as the team signed a new long-term agreement with PNC Bank in April that included naming rights to the team's recent addition at Halas Hall. But its most significant negotiation this year came with the Park District itself. The team amended its Soldier Field lease agreement to include the ability to sell naming rights to all Soldier Field gates and parking garages and install a flurry of signage around the stadium in return for giving up its south parking lot for the planned Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

5. NLRB punts on NU football unionization

Northwestern University continued to serve as the backdrop of major college sports history in August when the National Labor Relations Board ended the Wildcat football team's movement to form a labor union. But instead of reversing a landmark 2014 opinion by NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr that the players have a right to collectively bargain with the school, the five-member national board "declined to exert its jurisdiction" on the issue. The labor board noted that allowing the NU players to unionize "would not promote labor stability" but left open the possibility of reconsidering the issue in the future for another institution. It was an abrupt end to the NU effort more than a year after Ohr's opinion shook the foundation of college football. But the movement's lasting impact continues, having shined a light on issues for college athletes like scholarship protection, college athlete welfare and protocols for dealing with player health.

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Chicago Bulls/Bill Smith

Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler.

6. Butler emerges as the new Bulls star

It was a good year to be Jimmy Butler. After making his first NBA All-Star Game, the Chicago Bulls forward signed a new five-year, $95 million deal with the team—making him one of the highest-paid pro athletes in the city. Adding to that payday: Butler's face began appearing on billboards all around town as part of a Mountain Dew campaign earlier this year, and he also showed up in commercials for BMO Harris Bank and the Illinois Lottery. The 26-year-old is gradually taking over a Bulls spotlight once owned by Derrick Rose, whose inability to stay healthy and frequently tone-deaf comments to the press have chilled some Chicago fans' adoration of the city's favorite son. What remains to be seen is how Butler's emergence impacts his team's dynamic and performance under new head coach Fred Hoiberg, who has struggled so far in getting the pieces of the Bulls roster to meld into his system. Butler's ability to squeeze more juice out of his marketing potential will depend on his team's success. He's also been more vocal—and controversial—about the Bulls' challenges.

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7. White Sox finally draw more fans—but not too many

For the first time since 2006—the year after winning the World Series—the White Sox sold more tickets than they did the year before. The South Siders' paid attendance in 2015 of 21,677 fans per game was up 6 percent year-over-year, outpacing the average growth among all 30 Major League Baseball franchises. But that total was still the fifth-lowest in baseball and fell short of what the Sox expected halfway through the year. Key to the problem: The 2015 on-field product was a severe disappointment given the expectations for newly acquired, high-priced talent in David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche and Jeff Samardzija. TV ratings suffered, too. Sox games on Comcast SportsNet Chicago this year fell by nearly 29 percent to a starkly low average household rating of 0.8—fewer than 30,000 Chicago area households watching per game. One advantage the team will have in 2016, however, is the debut of a massive new $7.3 million center field video board that is more than four times the size of the previous one.

8. The daily fantasy sports question

Illinois has made its fair share of noise in recent months in the debate over the legality of daily fantasy sports. While much of the attention on industry giants FanDuel and Draft Kings has been in New York—where the companies are fighting for their lives while Attorney General Eric Schneiderman tries to shut them down—the Land of Lincoln now has its own turmoil. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan last week declared daily fantasy sports illegal gambling under state law, but ultimately will defer to state lawmakers on the policy question of whether the fantasy games should be legalized. State Rep. Mike Zalewski (D-Riverside), meanwhile, introduced a bill last month in Springfield that would include a legal definition of fantasy sports contests, various regulatory measures for the industry and an exemption for such contests from the state's definition of gambling. FanDuel and Draft Kings have come out in support of the bill and are challenging Madigan's opinion in court for the right to hold on to their massive customer pool in Chicago.

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Renderings of the new McCormick Place Event Center on display at the arena's groundbreaking.

9. DePaul arena work finally begins

After a year of price- and design-related delays, the agency that runs McCormick Place and DePaul University this fall broke ground on a $164 million, 10,000-seat arena next to the convention center that will serve as the new home of DePaul basketball beginning with the 2017-18 season. In April, DePaul and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (McPier) finalized terms of a 50-year lease agreement making the Blue Demons the anchor tenant of the facility and laying out various revenue-sharing rules for sponsorships and signage. New men's basketball head coach Dave Leitao, who returned to the program for a second stint after the Blue Demons fired head coach Oliver Purnell, aims to use the new building as a key recruitment tool. Meeting the building's revenue goals, however, will depend on achieving annual attendance goals. That's a major uphill battle for the Blue Demons, who averaged just under 2,200 fans per game this year at Allstate Arena in Rosemont. McPier has projected that DePaul games will draw 9,500 fans per game and will account for around 40 percent of attendance at the new venue.

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10. Fire in need of a spark

The Chicago Fire franchise in 2015 was a tale of two very different operations: an abysmal soccer side of the house completing one of the worst two-year stretches by number of wins in Major League Soccer history and a business side finding new ways to connect with fans in the city while expanding the brand's youth soccer footprint. Interest in the team has waned during what would likely be a period of dramatic growth if the Fire could simply field a competitive team. Major League Soccer has never been more popular, with more games on television in more places than ever before, lucrative league-wide sponsorship deals and rising attendance. But a lack of recognizable stars and wins on the pitch is making it difficult for new fans adopting soccer as a favorite sport to get behind a foundering team. The Fire hope new GM Nelson Rodriguez and head coach Veljko Paunovic can change that tune. Despite its shortcomings in the win column, the team had some success on the sponsorship front thanks to the MLS' growing television exposure and the team's 2015 return to the Comcast SportsNet Chicago airwaves. Minneapolis-based paint brand Valspar signed on in October as the team's new jersey sponsor under a three-year deal said to be worth $2.5 million per year.